I bought my 95 300ZX TT July 2013. I had the itch to get into a weekend fun car and after a lot of searching and heart ache I finally found "the one". I paid a pretty penny for the low mileage condition it is in for a 18 year old car. I felt like I got a good deal at the time. I had been working on the road and wasn't able to see the vehicle in person. I completed my transaction entirely online and I wasn't even home when it was delivered. I had to wait weeks till I could fly home to see it. I had it sent to my family and they received it and sent me pictures. My friend and his wife even seen and drove it before I did.
As always, what is a build write up without pictures? Everybody likes pictures. Here are some of the pictures sent to me the day it arrived at the house:
The first thing on my agenda was to relocate and replace the amplifiers because they were a eye sore mounted to the rear deck tray. Also I wanted to replace the ugly home made 10" sub-woofer box:
I immediately hit up the internet with that picture in mind and found a fitted 10" sub-woofer box from http://www.supercrewsound.com/Nissan-300zx.html. I also found a Kenwood Excelon X700-5 five channel amplifier http://www.kenwoodusa.com/Car_Entertain ... ers/X700-5 and a Pioneer DEH80-PRS head unit http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/ ... /DEH-80PRS.
After I got home I drove the car to the shop and a friend helped me pull it all apart. We ran new power wire and found all kinds of stray wires and realized that the previous stereo installation was far from professional. We spent the majority of the night cleaning up bad wiring and running new wiring. We also removed a cheap after market alarm system. I also realized at that time I wanted new speakers because they modified the factory plastic Bose speaker boxes to hold cheap Alpine speakers that weren't meant to fit in them. I also took that time to make a mental list of things I needed to do and replace so I could order the additional items.
Here is my friend helping me with the wiring:
I only had five days off and two of those were travel days, so three total days to try and get it squared away. We got the amp in under the seat and the speaker wires 80% ran. I hooked up the two rear speakers just to have some music and know that the stereo and amplifier worked.
Here is a picture of the Pioneer deck installed:
I got as much as I could get done finished with what I had and the limited time I had at the house. And it was back out of state to work again and amass more parts so I could work on it when I got home next time.
The Ruff Racing wheels looked good from far and were really pitted. The offset stuck out too far and even though the fenders were rolled the tires rubbed the fenders on bumps. I ordered the recommended sized TSW Jarama wheels from Tire Rack that was specified on the TSW website for fitment. To make the vehicle a practical weekend fair weather vehicle the wheels needed replacing.
The fronts I ordered are 8 x 20 x 18 and the rears are 9.5 x 40 x 18 (width x offset x diameter)
I thought the TSW Jarama wheels were pretty impressive looking. They had a nice dished look. I got them in the silver finish with the machined lip. Great wheel for little money.
The car was missing a factory key fob and random hardware. I ordered as much of that as I could think of that need replacing.
The gauge pod looked cheap and you can see the wires behind it from the other side of the windshield when standing outside of the vehicle so a Auto-meter gauge pod was in order.
I wasn't crazy about the installed digital boost, fuel pressure and air-fuel-ratio gauges and AEM digital gauges was ordered.
I ordered the factory non-Bose speaker brackets.
I also ordered JBL front components, rear plate speakers and 10 four ohm DVC subwoofer
The chrome plenum was missing the OEM "Twin Turbo" placard
The rear spoiler was missing the "Twin Turbo" and "Nissan" stickers
I ordered the JDM rear center panel, the one with the red 300ZX logo, Stillen short throw shifter, Greddy Full Auto Turbo Timer and harness, Greddy Pro-Spec digital boost controller, leather red stitched shift and e-brake boots, used factory plenum cover, Power Trix front and rear strut braces... I'm sure I'm probably missing some items.
I had a good amount of time to assemble and research the items I wanted to buy for my vehicle and had them in a neat stack against the garage wall for me to drool over after I flew back home for Thanksgiving 2013. Once again it was time to get back to work, racing against time to get whatever I can get done. I got most everything installed except for the front strut bar, turbo timer, boost controller.
Here are pictures of my time during Thanksgiving spent mainly with my car...
Rear JBL P6462 http://www.jbl.com/EN-CA/Products/Pages ... ?PID=P6462 speaker in the factory bracket
JBL rear speakers installed and wired with the PowerTrix strut bar installed and the driver side panel cut to fit
Installed the JDM "Nissan Fairlady Z" and "Twin Turbo" emblems on the spoiler
The new TSW Jarama wheels going on the evening I flew in. I headed right to Goodyear and had them install them. The sad thing is the front tires ended up being defective so I've got Bridgestone Potenza S-04 Pole Positions on the way from Tire Rack.
Another angle of inside the back with the speakers and strut bar
http://i1351.photobucket.com/albums/p78 ... lwil3i.jpg
Rear speaker wired and mounted
Close up of panel cut to fit strut bar
10" JBL MS-10SD4 http://www.jbl.com/EN-CA/Products/Pages ... D=MS-10SD4 subwoofer mounted in the supercrew sound box
The new JDM rear center panel installed
Holes were drilled in the doors to custom fit the JBL P660C http://www.jbl.com/EN-CA/Products/Pages ... ?PID=P660C component tweeters in the door panels
Beginning to remove factory shifter for Stillen short throw shifter replacement
Stillen short throw shifter next to factory shifter
Center console reassembled with Stillen Short throw shifter and Red Line leather, red stitched shift and e-brake boots
I used the factory service manual instructions I found online to program my OEM key fob and it works great. I was told by the owner that the tires were new but when they got put on the wheels at Goodyear they got the wheels put on the car and realized the front wheels had sidewall bulges. So I'm investing in the right sized tires for the front and rear wheels as recommended by Tire Rack.
I think the new, right sized, tires will do great on the new, right sized, wheels. I noticed that all the rubbing sound went away when going over bumps with the new wheels.
Anyhow all that work, over Thanksgiving break, kept me really busy. Of course it's coming along really well. I have other parts ordered and other plans to order other parts. The Bridgestone Potenza Pole Position tires are on order and should be in shortly on Dec 5th 2013. I got a single piece aluminum drive shaft from Shaftmasters and a Stillen oil cooler kit waiting at the house with the additional parts I haven't installed yet.
The previous owner has had hard pipes with HKS SSQV blow off valves installed. It is killing my idle and my low speed drivability. I'm going to be fixing that later this December 2013. I'm thinking about Mike Smith manifolds, 3" to 2.5" test pipes, 3" downpipes, and AshSpec inter-coolers and intake piping to help my JWT 530BB turbos breathe better and open up the power band more.
The under-hood insulation is falling apart and I'm planning on purchasing new insulation and stickers to go on that along with the factory stickers that go on that to restore it back and make it look factory new.
The fuel pressure has been reading high on the digital fuel pressure gauge. I need to figure out if the gauge is reading wrong or something else, like the fuel pressure regulator, is causing that problem.
Of course I'll have to concern myself with fluid and filter replacements and maybe a major tune-up kit soon.
As I near completion of that and progress is made I'll be sure to take more photos and post the progress and results.
